The murky road to Election 2024, full 10 years

The verdict of 2024 election by the people of our great country was a one that will be remembered in history for reasons that were born from a decade of experiments, misadventures, lies, polarization, selling false promises and reducing a whole nation to becoming a nation of one man worship to the level of insanity with a carefully crafted narrative.

Viewed from the prism of time the last 10 years were a laboratory experiment by Modi that successfully catapulted him to a demi god status despite the visible unreasonable antics of his whims and fancies played upon the people of the country. Right from Demonetization to GST to handling of Covid epidemic when people were proded to sometime light torches to bajao thalis mindlessly, thousands having died due to lack of oxygen, he exploited the blind belief of an innocent people in their Prime Minister. In the garb of minimum government, maximum governance 30 lakh govt jobs lay vacant as unemployment rose to its peak. Educated graduate youth are sitting home, some PhD’s applying for peons jobs too.

Then came the huge corporate scam in the garb of Electoral Bonds. Show me the money and you will be free of all criminal charges. By donating these Bonds big criminals were let loose as also invited to join the party. BJP notoriously came to be known the ‘Great Washing Machine’.

Come elections 2024 the same Modi as Prime Minister unleashed a barrage of invectives on his favourite opposition, the Congress, hurling the worst form of imaginary phrases like snatching of mangal sutras, taking away the wealth of Hindus to be distributed to muslims, taking away their buffaloes, naming muslims as those producing many children, Opposition eating mutton & fish, Congress doing Mujra and so on. His desperation of loosing election got more palpable when he not just said that he was not biologically born but was sent by god, where his ministers equated him with Lord Jagannath. The last speech was the highlight of the campaign when his tone changed into threats if voters voted for Congress. And all this when the Model Code of Conduct was in place.

Then as the campaign ended he decided to go on a meditation trip with scores of cameras to cover each angle of his meditation pose well publicized thanks to the much loyal godi media. Coming back from his meditation he resumed to his combative best, in election mode. What kind of meditation is this that doesn’t relieve you of your baser instincts! The Opposition and Independent media questioned his state of mind saying that a country being headed by such imbalanced Prime Minister is definitely not in safe hands.

As results poured in and BJP lost badly in Ayodhya where the Ram Temple was built with appeasement of Hindu’s in mind, that the nation will be made a hindu rastra with the 400 paar this time, it was amply clear that the decision of building a Ram Temple by the destruction of hundreds of poor peoples’ lives and the heritage temples in the holy city, bore the ire of people. The Modi concept of ‘vikas’ was questioned.

In Varanasi, Modi’s victory with a narrow margin of a lakh and a half votes is nothing but a moral defeat for the Prime Minister whose arrogance reached the superlative level. On June 4, he was ‘cut to size’ as a Telegragh heading said.

Most of the media played along, shamefully. A handful of YouTubers and Independent Journalists who quit channels that were bought by big corporates like Adani and Ambani, dared to question the government and its ways at the risk of their lives and existence and with meager or no earnings. Scroll, News Laundry, The Wire, Newsclick, News Minute, Ravish Kumar, Dhruv Rathee were some names that dared question Modi’s ways of ‘Nation First’ when the poor were getting poorer and the rich richer.

Trolls were let loose to threaten them every minute. Never had media been so plaint earlier. Just shows the standards that media has fallen to and can fall to.

Everyone looked scared. Bureaucracy, Judiciary, Police. The Election Commission was filled with yes men. ED, CBI were used to threaten, round up and put non complaint people in jail with false cases. CEC, CIC had no voice.

Is this the kind of democracy that we want India to be. A Prime Minister who’s self indulgent, narcissist, a dramatist too. Selling the dream of a 20, 30, 40 years when the present India is weeping tears of hunger, poverty, joblessness and injustice. Reducing the Opposition to a non entity by freezing their funds, putting its leaders in jail, slapping UAPA and other stringent acts on journalists & activists, unleasing a whole army of followers thereby denying a level playing field in an election was nothing but a sinister plan of ensuring a comeback by hook or crook.

As hectic preparations for government formation are going on, all sorts of compromises are made. Partnering with once staunch foes to remain in power, reselling the same dream of making a viksit Bharat and professing time and again that ‘his’ life is only for the 140 billion Indians, now comes across as theatrix par excellence. Dropping a tear at the right time and right place is a mastered art.

India is itself a land of gods and great saints. And a blessed one by them too. What India needs is a true patriot, an honest leader, a peoples’ person, not a dramatis persone, nor someone who ideates himself as god, not a liar by any means and a ‘balanced mind’. A leader like Atal Bihari Bajpai is missed more than ever now.